Is Linky safe to use?

Linky integrates 119 third-party SDKs spanning infrastructure, media, and analytics. Its App Store privacy label declares cross-app tracking via Usage Data. It collects data linked to your identity including Location, Usage Data, and Diagnostics. It includes 4 advertising or attribution SDKs. Whether this is acceptable depends on your personal privacy preferences.

What permissions does Linky need?

Linky requests 8 iOS permissions: App Tracking Transparency, Camera, Microphone, Photo Library, Location (When In Use), Location (Always & When In Use), Save to Photo Library, and Apple Music.

What data does Linky collect?

According to its App Store privacy label, Linky declares cross-app tracking via Usage Data. It collects data linked to your identity including Location, Usage Data, and Diagnostics. It collects Identifiers and Usage Data not linked to your identity.

How many SDKs does Linky have?

Linky integrates 119 third-party SDKs. 4 for advertising, 7 for analytics, 1 for crash reporting, 1 for payments, 7 for social integration, 30 for infrastructure, and 52 for other.

Does Linky use Facebook tracking?

Yes. Linky includes 6 Facebook SDKs: Facebook AEM, Facebook SDK, Facebook Login, Facebook Share, flutter_facebook_app_links, and flutter_facebook_auth. These are used for ad measurement, attribution, and integration with Facebook's advertising platform (developers.facebook.com).

Does Linky use App Tracking Transparency?

Yes. Linky requests the App Tracking Transparency permission, which means it asks for your consent to track your activity across other companies' apps and websites.

Does Linky access your location?

Yes. Linky requests location access. The developer states: "We need to access your location to provide location-based services and features.".

Does Linky access your camera or microphone?

Linky requests access to both your camera and microphone. The developer says camera access is for "We need to access your camera in order to insert photos into chat". Microphone access is for "We need to access your microphone in order to send voice messages". These permissions are only active when you grant them in iOS Settings.

Does Linky run in the background?

Yes. Linky registers 4 background modes, which means it can perform certain tasks when you're not actively using it.

What are some alternatives to Linky?

Other social networking apps include Yik Yak , 3F , AM , Backbone , BeReal. , and BiP . Each app takes a different approach to social networking and varies in its data collection and SDK usage.

Social Networking · Privacy report

Linky AI: AI Chat&Char Maker

Free · ★4.4 · SKYWORK AI PTE LTD

Is Linky safe?

It leans heavily on third-party trackers.

Our take. Linky is built with more third-party tracking code than 73% of the social networking we have scanned.

Privacy footprint · vs 97 social networkingHeavy

Trackers from other companies11 · a lot

typical social networking: 4

Data the app links to you3 types · some

typical social networking: 5 · from its own privacy label

What it collects about you

Linky links 3 categories of your data to you.

From the developer's own App Store privacy label. These are the kinds of data Linky ties to your identity, and it also declares it shares data to track you across other apps.

LocationUsage DataDiagnostics

Who else is inside

It carries trackers from 3 companies.

Third-party SDKs found in the app, matched to the company that publishes each. Present in the code; we do not observe what they transmit.

🇺🇸GoogleAnalytics

Firebase, AdMob and Google analytics SDKs, built to record how you use the app and serve ads.

SDKs

🇺🇸MetaAdvertising

Facebook advertising SDKs, built to link app activity to Facebook and Instagram ad profiles.

SDKs

🇺🇸AppLovinAdvertising

A mobile advertising and monetization network.

SDK

How it compares

Where it sits among social networking.

Every one of these apps we have scanned, on the two measures above: third-party trackers it carries (across) and data it links to you on its own label (up). Toward the top right is more invasive.

Each dot is one social networking app. Linky sits to the right, carrying more third-party tracking than most.

Other signals

One more flag.

Each is a fact read straight from the app. The same checks run on every app we scan. Only the ones that apply here are shown.

It declares cross-app tracking

Its own App Store label says it tracks you across other companies apps and websites using your advertising identifier.

The evidence

What it's built from.

All 119 SDKs in the app, grouped by what they are for. 11 are third-party trackers.

105

4advertising

7analytics

1crash reporting

2push & messaging

105standard libraries

11 of the 119 are third-party trackers. 2 are push-notification SDKs that deliver notifications, rather than tracking you across apps. The rest are the app's own code and standard open-source building blocks.

Show the full SDK list

GoogleAnalytics · USA

Firebase A/B Testing · Firebase Core · Firebase Performance · Firebase Remote Config · Firebase Remote Config Interop · Firebase Sessions · Google Data Transport

MetaAdvertising · USA

Facebook AEM · Facebook SDK · Facebook Login

AppLovinAdvertising · USA

AppLovin

Push & messaging2 · notifications

Standard libraries105 · on-device

The app's own code plus open-source interface, storage and networking libraries.

How we know this

Counterspy downloads the app from the App Store and statically analyzes its compiled binary. Embedded SDKs are matched against a signature database and resolved to the company that operates each. We also read the developer's App Store privacy label, which lists the data the app says it collects and links to you. We do not run the app or intercept its traffic, so we report capabilities present in the code and the developer's own disclosures, not proven transmission. We assess privacy and data collection, not malware, security flaws, or developer intent. Reports are automated and never edited for payment. Scan v3.14.2, 2026-04-05.

Third-party trackers are advertising, analytics and attribution SDKs detected by static signature matching. Presence shows a capability is compiled in, not that it ran or transmitted data.
"Data the app links to you" is the count of data categories the developer declares as Data Linked To You in its App Store privacy label. Labels are self-reported and not verified by Apple.
Comparison across the 97 social networking in our corpus. Trackers: median 4. Data linked to you: median 5.